Dark Horse Comics Solicitations for January, 2010

Dark Horse has provided CBR News with covers and solicit information for products shipping January, 2010. When you're through checking out these solicitations, be sure to visit CBR's Indie Comics Forum and discuss these Dark Horse releases with fellow readers.

Driven from their homeland by plummeting temperatures, massive herbivore herds migrate south in search of a better place to spend the winter months. But when they try to push through an arid wasteland ravaged by drought, they discover not only a vicious environment but also desperate, starving predators—including a frenzied pack of raptors!

Ricardo Delgado—a prolific development and storyboard artist who has worked on such hit films as Men in Black, The Incredibles, WALL-E, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and the Matrix series—returns once again to his critically acclaimed, Eisner Award–winning comic series.

"Ricardo Delgado joins the ranks of H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, and Ray Harryhausen in transporting us to a lost world. Bravo, Delgado!" —John Landis, Filmmaker (An American Werewolf in Paris, Michael Jackson’s Thriller)

Lewis Carroll’s universally known story of a little girl who falls down a rabbit hole into a magical wonderland is given a new spin in this lushly illustrated version of the classic tale.

Alice was sitting in a field reading when a white rabbit scampered by. She didn’t know what was odder: that the rabbit was running on its hind legs, wearing a jacket, and carrying a pocket watch, or that it was talking, shouting, "I’m late! I’m late!" From the moment she decided to follow the rabbit into his rabbit hole, Alice was transported to a fantastical place called Wonderland, where anything was possible. All of the familiar characters are here: the Hatter, the March Hare, the Cheshire Cat, the Caterpillar, and the wicked Queen of Hearts.

• A new line of children’s storybooks, the POP Wonderland series is rendered in a friendly pastel palette, with engaging art that brings familiar fairy tales to life in a brand-new way.

• Parents know their children love anime and manga, and the art style in these books will connect with moms and dads looking to get their child a book drawn in a modern style, yet telling a story they can identify with from their own childhoods.

A centuries-old interstellar conflict threatens humanity’s very existence as a long-lost Predator clan stakes its claim for galactic dominance, intent on exterminating its rival clan, the selfsame trophy hunters who have plagued Earth’s history and every world they have touched. And if the advanced technology and military precision of this new threat weren’t enough, they have an even more terrifying weapon at their disposal—Aliens, weaponized and under their malefic control. This puts earthmen in the dangerous position of parlaying with the same alien warriors who have relentlessly hunted them, and who better to carry out the negotiations than Machiko Naguchi, the only human known to have spent time alongside the Hunters.

• Features the creative team of original AvP writer Randy Stradley and penciller Rick Leonardi (Cloak and Dagger, Uncanny X-Men, Vigilante), and stunning cover art by Raymond Swanland (Aliens, Predator).

• Ties together story threads introduced in the original AvP series and new Aliens and Predator storylines, setting the stage for the most epic AvP brawl ever imagined!

Private investigator John Blacksad is up to his feline ears in mystery, digging into the backstories behind murders, child abductions, and nuclear secrets. Guarnido’s sumptuously painted pages and rich cinematic style bring the world of 1950s America to vibrant life, with Canales weaving in fascinating tales of conspiracy, racial tension, and the "red scare" Communist witch hunts of the time. Guarnido reinvents anthropomorphism in these pages, and industry colleagues no less than Will Eisner, Jim Steranko, and Tim Sale are fans!

Whether John Blacksad is falling for dangerous women or getting beaten to within an inch of his life, his stories are, simply put, unforgettable.

• Dark Horse is very proud to present the first three Blacksad stories in a beautiful hardcover collection, completely relettered to the artist’s specifications and with the latest album, Red Soul, in English for the very first time.

• This internationally acclaimed series has won nearly a dozen prestigious awards—including the Angoulême Comics Festival prizes for Best Series and Best Artwork—and is a three-time Eisner Award nominee.

• Blacksad took Europe by storm in 2000 and sold over 200,000 copies in France alone.

After the defeat of the mystic Memnan Saa, the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense—on the outs with the United States government after the bloodstained rescue of Liz Sherman—embarks to the Ural Mountains, the site of B.P.R.D.: Hollow Earth, to put the frog menace to rest once and for all.

Meanwhile, Kate Corrigan heads to Hunte Castle in Austria, where Hellboy killed the Conqueror Worm, on her own rescue mission—to save ectoplasmic special agent Johann Kraus, possessed by the ghost of Lobster Johnson.

Written by Mike Mignola and John Arcudi, and drawn by 2009 Eisner winner Guy Davis, B.P.R.D.: King of Fear wraps up the Scorched Earth trilogy, which started with The Warning and The Black Goddess.

After Willow unearths giant Tibetan goddesses to help in the fight against Twilight and his disposable soldiers, the Slayers are forced to retreat when the goddesses go AWOL and attack indiscriminately. Without powers the Slayers are unable to keep up the fight against missile fire, grenade launchers, and tanks. It would seem that all is lost, and Buffy—all alone—must make her last stand on a battlefield covered in the bodies of friends and foes.

Series artist Georges Jeanty reunites with Buffy creator Joss Whedon for this very special Season Eight one-shot.

Buffy Season Eight Volume 6 showcases the first retreat of the Slayer legion. Vampires have solid footing at the top of the totem and Slayers have been crushed to the bottom—in short, no one likes Buffy anymore . . . least of all this season’s mysterious Big Bad, Twilight, who is hot on her magical trail!

Now that it’s the world against Slayers, Buffy must find a way to return the status quo to . . . status quo—and keep her girls alive long enough to do it! Enter Oz, the only person/werewolf Buffy knows who is down with the suppression of magic, and can take the Slayer army off of Twilight’s magic-specific radar.

With Oz’s assistance, the Slayers and Wiccans try to become "normal" through meditation and hard labor—although, not everyone sees the advantage of being magicless, namely, Willow, Giles, and Andrew. And they could be right. After all, is a peaceful life for a Slayer even possible?

• Oz appears in Buffy Season Eight!

• Collects issues #26-#30 of the ongoing series.

• The first three volumes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight have combined to sell over 220,000 copies!

Defying Yasmela’s orders, Conan sets himself on a runaway course that will end his time fighting with the combined forces of Amalric’s mercenaries, the Khorajan army, and Julion of Koth’s rebel soldiers. Our newest issue marks a turning point in Conan’s career as a sword for hire, when he and his comrades find themselves without work or direction. An old battle wound threatens the life of Amalric, the leader of the restless mercenaries, and the rekindled affair between Princess Yasmela and Prince Julion continues to enrage Conan—who must take action in order to save face.

This original tale explores events alluded to in Robert E. Howard’s Conan tales, taking place right after Dark Horse’s Black Colossus story arc and building to the birth of Conan’s "Free Companions"!

"Best New Series of 2008" —Wizard magazine

"…writer Tim Truman is a perfect choice to adapt the oeuvre of Robert E. Howards into comics form." —Comics Buyer's Guide

Sharp as broken glass, smooth as a polished skull, dark as the other side of the moon—this is the art of Brian Ewing, one of the leading-edge visual voices of graphic pop surrealism and the exploding rock-poster scene. Don’t Hold Your Breath is the first collection of Ewing’s stunning catalog, featuring posters, illustrations, and album covers for Bad Religion, Queens of the Stone Age, Metallica, Detective Comics, My Chemical Romance, the Bouncing Souls, Brand New, the Melvins, Warped Tour, the New Yorker, High on Fire, The Strokes, Fall Out Boy, and many more. Plus original art prints, skate decks, shirt designs, zombie masks, and skulls, skulls, skulls! Foreword by Kevin Lyman, creator of the Warped Tour.

• Brian Ewing’s work is well known among rock fans and collectors of the booming rock-poster market.

Plots are starting to twist in the Gantz storyline! Has Kato disappeared forever? Who is this cute girl Kei’s falling in love with? Does someone on the Internet know the secret of Gantz? And who is this huge fighter roaming the streets of Japan looking for the greatest fighting challenge? Well, the challenge he’s looking for might come from the least likely of physical specimens.

So far, the story of Gantz knows few bounds when it comes to plot twists and a constantly changing cast. When it’s kill or be killed against a universe full of odd and resilient aliens, a lot of characters get killed off quickly. So far the most constant, and consistently evolving, character is Kei, a classic antihero. The question begins to set in . . . if Kei succeeds in fulfilling his contract with Gantz, will he be willing to give up these superhuman powers he’s begun to take for granted?

• Gantz has proven to be one of the most popular adult anime in recent years, with over 190,000 copies sold in the U.S. alone!

• Each volume of Gantz comes shrink-wrapped and carries an 18+ content advisory.

Over the years, Dark Horse has been committed to incorporating art into our everyday lives through prints, T-shirts, mugs, and a variety of other items that help make this world more colorful. Now Dark Horse is proud to collaborate with GelaSkins to bring over twenty new designs to their line of protective skins for laptops and phones.

Our second wave of designs includes the Dark Horse logo and the timeless beauty Bettie Page, the new line of GelaSkins is the perfect way to protect your technology while showing off your signature style.

If you thought things were bad in the land of Groo last month, just wait. This month makes last month look like it warranted a rousing chorus of "Happy Days Are Here Again"! Nothing Groo the Wanderer has ever done with his swords has achieved the unparalleled destruction now wrought by the bankers—an unlikely defeat indeed, and we are just as surprised as you are. This issue will make you tremble with fear and awe!

When ancient giants begin to reawaken in the British Isles, Hellboy is invited to join an ancient band of fellow monster hunters called the Wild Hunt and help bring them down. But an unexpected betrayal sends Hellboy after a quarry far more deadly: the Queen of Blood, first seen in 2007’s best-selling Hellboy: Darkness Calls. This newly reborn evil has her murderous sights set on all of humanity, and the only way Hellboy can stop her is to finally confront the truth about his own dark heritage.

The globetrotting hero born of George Lucas’s love for high-adventure 1930s fiction returns! Irreverent archaeologist Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones scours the furthest corners of the planet for priceless artifacts, hungry for knowledge about ancient civilizations and in a constant race to beat grave-robbing thieves to the goods. Though his quick wit, resourcefulness, and dashing good looks have gotten him this far, what happens when his Nazi foes attempt to wake the dead through sorcery? Join Steve Ditko and Linda Grant in this value-priced collection to find out!

• This volume also includes the official comics adaptation of The Last Crusade!

• The first three Dark Horse Indiana Jones Omnibus editions have combined to sell over 50,000 copies!

Mass Effect 2 lead writer Mac Walters reveals an essential moment in the life of Commander Shepard, the galaxy’s greatest hero, only in Mass Effect: Redemption!

The eagerly anticipated sequel to the blockbuster science-fiction epic that IGN.com named the #1 Xbox 360 game of all time, Mass Effect 2 begins with the disappearance of Commander Shepard. The story of what happens next—exclusive to these comics—will have the commander’s companion Dr. Liara T’Soni undertake a deadly mission of extraordinary importance in the Milky Way’s lawless Terminus Systems.

Scripted by John Jackson Miller (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic) and drawn by Omar Francia (Star Wars: Legacy), this series is not only an integral part of the Mass Effect universe, it is the must-read comic that every fan of space adventure has been waiting for!

Look for a five-page preview of Mass Effect #1 in Buffy the Vampire Slayer #30 and Star War: Knights of the Old Republic #48!

Despite the way "Baka Shinji" makes them boil, Asuka didn’t get her brains out of a gachapon machine, but from her mother, the brilliant but absent Dr. Kyoko Soryu. There could probably be less embarrassing places for a family reunion than at a drunken cherry- blossom-viewing party—but unfortunately, Asuka isn’t picking the occasion!

Here’s an exciting and charming addition to the CLAMP collection of works! CLAMP artist Mokona loves the art of traditional Japanese kimono. In fact, she designs kimono and kimono accessories herself and shares her love in Okimono Kimono, a fun and lavishly illustrated book full of drawings and illustrations, interviews (including an interview with Ami of the J-pop duo Puffy AmiYumi!), and even short manga stories from the CLAMP artists.

Fans of CLAMP will love Okimono Kimono for the personal glimpse of Mokona’s kimono obsession, and people who love the traditional Japanese arts will appreciate the love and detail Mokona puts into her work.

• From the creators of such titles as Clover, Chobits, Cardcaptor Sakura, Magic Knight Rayearth, and Tsubasa.

• Dark Horse will be publishing Okimono Kimono in English for the first time ever!

In the year 2020, bounty hunter Daniel Legend finds himself tracking a quarry of a different kind: his long-lost sister. Armed only with his wits, his gun, and a mysterious postcard, Daniel makes his way to the heart of the seedy Shinjuku district of Tokyo, where a clash between two underworlds—the criminal and the infernal—threatens the very fabric of reality.

• Shinjuku marks the first totally original project by Yoshitaka Amano for Dark Horse Books.

• Written by filmmaker mink, a rising star from Quentin Tarantino’s A Band Apart production company.

Taking place after the events in Solomon Kane: The Castle of the Devil—but written to stand on its own—this new series delves deep into the horrors scattered throughout Germany’s Black Forest. When Kane comes across gypsies being terrorized by roving bandits, he’s not sure what’s worse—the bandits who wish to rob and rape innocent travelers or the evils that spew forth from the forest, intent on killing every man and woman around! With creature designs by Eisner Award-winning artist Guy Davis, this series uses Robert E. Howard’s "Death’s Black Riders" fragment and the "Rattle of Bones" short story as springboards to launch into a suspenseful and terrifying new excursion with Howard’s troubled Puritan hero.

Dark Horse’s new Solomon Kane series features the return of writer Scott Allie and artist Mario Guevara (The Lone Ranger and Tonto), who are joined by colorist Juan Ferreyra (Rex Mundi) and cover artist Darick Robertson (The Boys, Transmetropolitan)!

"With art and writing that perfectly captures the pulp weirdness of his birth, Solomon Kane officially becomes the only Puritan I’ve ever been a fan of. Don’t miss out on these weird tales, you’ll regret it." —Ed Brubaker

Anakin Skywalker is recalled to active duty to deal with a Separatist pilot who has been wreaking havoc on the Republic’s fleets. But Anakin’s chance to prove himself comes at a high price: the enemy ace is a friend.

The costs of war have never been higher, and even Obi-Wan Kenobi’s desperate attempts to find a path to peace may come too late.

The penultimate chapter of the most epic Knights of the Old Republic story ever told!

It is do or die for former Padawan Zayne Carrick as he desperately tries to save Jarael’s life. He’ll call in favors from the Senate, the Mandalorian Cassus Fett, and Admiral Karath of the Republic Navy—but none can prepare him for what he’s about to face!

On the trail of a bounty that is supposed to bring them a cool million credits, Cade Skywalker, Deliah Blue, and Jariah Syn have taken the Mynock to Wayland—the site of Kol Skywalker and the Yuuzhan Vong’s first failure in the Ossus Project. Expecting a blue-milk run, the trio step off their ship to find something completely different . . .

Elsewhere in the galaxy, Moff Morlish Veed relishes his role as regent and Moff Nyna Calixte . . . doesn’t. And Skull Squadron prepares for a blue milk-run of their own!

One hundred and thirty-three years after the death of Darth Vader, the Skywalker line has reached another low point—in the person of the last living heir, Cade Skywalker. Cade has abandoned his Jedi heritage for plans of quick wealth and a pirate’s life. And his actions have attracted all of the wrong kinds of attention.

Tracked by Imperial agents and targeted by Black Sun assassins, Cade is run to ground on Tatooine, where his two most famous ancestors had roots. But even if he can evade those who are trying to kill him, Cade can’t escape the family legacy. Before this adventure is over, Cade will be forced to think about who he is and who he wants to be—helped along by his mother, his half sister, and the ghost of Luke Skywalker!

• This newest volume of Star Wars: Legacy collects issues #37–#41!

• Star Wars: Legacy includes the uncharted future of Star Wars and the Skywalkers!

In this volume, Tarzan fends off a scientist’s unnaturally sized jungle animals; protects Cathne, "the city of gold," and its people from Tommy-gun-toting gangsters; outwits treacherous witch doctors and a truck-sized spider; discovers Egyptian ruins; and evades the dinosaurs of the lost land of Pal-ul-don while hunting for their eggs. The familiar faces of Boy, Jane, and Lieutenant Paul D’Arnot—a character fashioned after Jesse Marsh himself—return, and the recurring character Dr. MacWhirtle, a famed and eccentric paleontologist, is introduced for the first time!

• This archive series has been in the works for years, and Dark Horse is pleased to introduce—and reintroduce!—fans and collectors to classic Golden Age adventure stories that have been out of print since their original publication.

Having wandered into a strange prehistoric valley, Indian braves Turok and Andar are cut off from their home and their tribe. While they seek a way home, they struggle to survive threatening honkers (dinosaurs!), man-eating plants, flying men who prey on land-dwellers, cavemen, volcanoes, swamps, and more!

• This volume collects issues #25–#29 of the Dell Comics run, and issue #30 (the first of the Gold Key Comics run), of Turok, Son of Stone. These classic adventures have not been seen since the early 1960s!

Through all of history, on the night of the full moon, the bloodcurdling cries of werewolves have pierced the night sky. For centuries werewolves have had to content themselves with shortened forays of feral change as dictated by the source of their power—the moon! But all that is about to change as three werewolf friends—Ted, Jeff, and Stan—leave Earth and travel to the lunar surface in a quest to become Kings of the Moon! Unfortunately, Moon Patrol captain Maggie Pilgrim has other plans . . . as does the hive of vampires living on the dark side!

• If you’re wondering how in the world werewolves got to the moon, then check out the eight page prologue for the series at myspace.com/darkhorsepresents, issue #21.